Cell phones should not be allowed in school as they allow for cheating. Say, your sitting in science taking a test fifth period, and my friend just had this class last period. I have no clue for problem three, so I can just text my friend for the answer. Also, if you have a phone with Internet, you can look up all you answers.-Cell phones should not be allowed in school as they can't be monitored easily. Someone could argue that a teacher could just monitor what you are doing on your phone, but, if you were a teacher, do you really think you could know what each kid in you twenty-one children class was doing and still teach the lesson? My English teacher tried that, just twice, and got so stressed he immediately banned all of our phones.

Cell phones should not be allowed in school as they are a heavy distraction. If cell phones are allowed, anyone could be on Facebook/Twitter/MySpace when they are supposed to be paying attention to Spanish. Also, they can be a big distraction to teachers, as the teachers need to redirect attention, or can see a person's game on their phone.

Cell phones should not be allowed in school as they lower grades. According to a survey from Girls Life magazine, four out of every ten girls asked had used there cell phone during class when it was allowed. They had been texting, cheating, getting on social media sites, and even playing games. Of those girls using their phone, half of them received low grades because they weren't paying attention, or the teacher found out they were cheating.

Also, if anyone wants to argue that your phone could replace a computer, calculator, and notebook, I have some points: 1) What about the kids without a phone? What are they supposed to do if the teacher decides to use these things instead of the traditional school supplies? 2) Most cell phone calculators can't deal with the math needed in math classes, such as fractions, square roots, exponents, and parenthesis. 3) If you are able to know that your phone can replace these things, you obviously have used them. So, if you can use a notebook/calculator, why can't you used them like normal and not your self phone?

Thank you to anyone who returns this argument! Also, just to let you know, I am in tenth grade, and my ninth grade year they allowed cell phones, so most of these things I know from personal experience. Vote Pro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

I'd like to thank my opponent for instigating this debate, and graciously telling everybody to vote pro. Naturally I completely agree that pro should win this debate. I'd also like to commend my opponent for their fine opening case. Finally I would like to apologise for being slightly slow with my first round. My router decided to be annoying.

Allow me to begin this debate by explaining my model. Cellphone use should be allowed in schools - but not during class or in exams. I'd just like to emphasise that last bit. No cellphones in class or in exams. Let me explain. Currently, many schools even confiscate cellphones that have been turned off. My contention is that it might be really important for students to use cellphones in their lunchbreaks, or right after school, or on the school trip that's leaving this afternoon, or any other non-class non-exam situation that might take place on school property.

1. Allows for cheatingNo, cheating with cellphones is just as possible whether cellphones are banned in school or whether they are not - and besides being possible, it's also just as permissable under both of our positions. This was actually a big thing at my former high school - people actually started cheating less when cellphones were allowed because they didn't feel the need to keep their cellphones on them at all times, but felt safer keeping them in their bags (or lockers, if you go to a school with lockers). The point is people will cheat with cellphones whether their use is banned in school or just banned in the exam room.

2. DistractionThis is only the case if the cellphone is on during class. Staring at a blank screen during class is even more boring than the lesson, believe me.

3. Lower GradesMy opponent's logic is that people will use their cellphones during class, rather than concentrate on the teacher. First I contend that students do that anyway, even when cellphones are not allowed. And what's to stop them? If the teacher cannot monitor what 20-30 odd students are doing on small devices when cellphones are allowed, what makes them more capable when they are not. Secondly I contend that my model doesn't allow use during class. Sure, use cell phones in school - but not during class.

4. No subsitute for other digital equipmentI contend that cellphones are the best and most affordable long-distance communication device on this planet. That's useful for all manner of things, like catching up with your girlfriend from another school during lunch break, texting your over-anxious mother that you're not dead yet, organising a school ball committee meeting in a hurry, calling the police because a crazy kid has taken a gun to school today, and begging your friend because you forgot your pen, among numerous other trivial things that are excruciatingly difficult to do with a calculator, but which a cellphone can handle with ease. It needs to be remembered that cellphones were never designed as learning tools, but that's not to say that a non-learning tool has no place in a learning environment. For kids that don't have them, there is no disadvantage to their education of not using them. I was one of my high school's top scholars and yet I had never used or owned a cellphone until I was in my final year.

So that wraps up my rebuttal. Now here's the bit where I meet my burden of proof.

1. Cellphones are important for student safetyMany children will need to be able to contact parents after school, for instance, if they're going to come home late because they have to finish an inter-school chess game, or are going to a friend's house. The biggest threat to child safety is when parents/caregivers/the school/the police have no idea where they are. Besides, young people often find themselves in dangerous situations, just like adults do. Bullying is a real threat in schools, and older people also prey on schoolkids. People have died in schoolyards. People have been assaulted. People have been kidnapped. And all these attacks are preventable. All it would have taken is for the kids to ask for help.

2. Cellphones are important for certain extra-curricular activitiesExtra-curricular activities that involve travel or just getting a team together benefit much from being able to contact students easily. Scouts, for instance, relies on a certain amount of organisation on the part of a large number of students, particulary for the large-scale events that organisation puts on. This is much easier to co-ordinate when at least a few of the students involved have access to cellphones after school, because for co-ordination you first need communication. The same is true even of clubs like debating. When I helped to start a debating club at my high school, or when I started the chess club, it was very hard to get things running. Later, when I got a cellphone and the school allowed me to use it, I learnt first-hand how much easier it is to remind people to go to the venue for the debate/chess game when I could actually talk to them remotely at lunchtime.

3. Role of SchoolsSchools are there to educate, not regulate. It should not be the concern of schools what kids do in their lunchbreaks, nor after school. Schools shouldn't care what kids carry in their pockets either. To ban cellphone use across the entire school, rather than just in the classroom, is a massive power abuse.

So, that concludes my round one case. I wish my opponent good luck for the debate.